Altaic etymology :

Comments:Ozawa 52-53, 177-181. Despite Щербак 1997, 120, not a borrowing in Mong. < Turk. The Middle Jpn. itiko 'virgin consecrated to a deity, sorceress' (with a later form itako id.), which is compared by Miller (1985, 148) directly with the Mong. form, should be treated as a secondary distortion of *i-tu-kua (lit.) 'sacred girl'.